


Can't Convict an Innocent Man

by alphvjensen



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Lawyers, Alternate Universe - Prison, Crazy Dean, Crazy Dean Winchester, Criminal Dean, F/M, Lawyer Sam, Lawyer Sam Winchester, M/M, Prisoner Dean, will add more tags when they show up in later chapters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-08
Updated: 2017-01-08
Packaged: 2018-09-15 19:05:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9251717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alphvjensen/pseuds/alphvjensen
Summary: “On the account of capital murder in the first degree, has the jury reached a verdict?”The was a beat, a moment of pause where the head juror stood from his seat. He made the mistake of glancing over at the at the defendant, taking in his easy demeanor and small smirk. His fingers shook as he opened up the small piece of paper, feeling his eyes on him as he read of the verdict."Your honor, on the charge of capital murder, the jury finds the defendant, Dean Winchester…guilty.”





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [masterlynovak](https://archiveofourown.org/users/masterlynovak/gifts).



> So this was something that I had originally thought out of being either a reader insert fic or add an original character but then I thought that it would just be wonderful to make it wincest and add in all the conflicting thoughts and feelings and the pain that will come from it. So yeah, here's this.

“On the account of capital murder in the first degree, has the jury reached a verdict?”

The was a beat, a moment of pause where the head juror stood from his seat. He made the mistake of glancing over at the at the defendant, taking in his easy demeanor and small smirk. His fingers shook as he opened up the small piece of paper, feeling his eyes on him as he read of the verdict.

"Your honor, on the charge of capital murder, the jury finds the defendant, Dean Winchester…guilty.”

~~~

“Sir…” There was a tentative knock on the wooden door as the young secretary opened in a fraction, alerting the man behind the desk of her presence. “There’s someone here to see you. He says that he doesn’t have an appointment but he says that it’s urgent and he’s kinda…” She paused, thinking of a word. “Insistent on speaking with you. I can send him away if you want.”

He looked up at her, running a tired hand through his hair before pinching the bridge of his nose. The last thing he wanted was to talk to another pompous kid who was the son of so and so who thought that he could boss him around but he nodded anyway, telling the young woman to go ahead and send the man in.

The young woman opened the door wider and another set of footsteps filled the room. Sam was shocked to say the least to see who it was standing in the doorway of his office. There were a few more wrinkles and he had a couple more gray hair in his beard but the man was the same underneath that old ball cap.

“Bobby!” Sam smiled, standing up and walking around his desk, throwing his arms wide to take him into a greeting hug.

“It’s been too long, boy.” Bobby said, holding Sam away at arms distance to look at Sam. “How have you been?”

“Well…” Sam gestured around the room. “I’ve opened up my own practice. Work is slow but it keeps me busy most of the time.” Sam sat back down in his seat and Bobby took one of the chairs in front of his desk. “I… uh… I got engaged a few weeks ago. Her name’s Jess.” He reached into his desk and pulled out a picture of the two of them together and handed it to Bobby.

Bobby couldn’t keep the smile off his face as he looked at the pair, frozen in time in a select number of pixels. “She’s beautiful, Sam.”

Sam took the picture back, trying to ignore the uneasy feeling in his stomach. He had spoken to Bobby in months. They talked, a couple of times, over the phone. Never longer than a couple of minutes but Bobby called just to check on him, make sure that he kept his nose clean and yet this felt nothing like those talks. This wasn’t a social call.

“What about you?” Sam asked, putting the picture back up. “How have you been?”

“Well, I’m still waking up in the morning so I’d say pretty good.”

Small talk. Bobby didn’t do small talk.

Sam lowered his voice, keeping an eye on the door, making sure that it was shut. “And what about Dean? He still living off of credit card fraud?”

“Well, Sam, you know hunting isn’t exactly a top paying job. He’s gotta eat somehow but…” Bobby looked down at Sam’s desk, at the meticulous placed supplies that lined it. “He’s actually why I’m here, Sam.”

Sam tensed, the grip that he had on the armrest of his chair tightened almost involuntarily.

“What had he done this time? Stole some high ranking official identity trying to pass as them? Flirted with the wrong girl?” There was bitterness that laced his voice that he couldn’t quite keep out.

“Well…” Bobby chuckled, trying to lighten the mood. “It’s kinda worse than that. Dean has been charged with murder and the jury found him guilty yesterday and…he’s going to be put away for a very long time.” A pause. “Sam, I need you to reopen the case, prove that Dean isn’t guilty. You and I both know that.”

Sam leaned back in his chair, his hand opening and closing into a fist, not really sure what he was feeling, why his heart just sank into his stomach and shook his head.

“Bobby, I swore that I would never get back involved with my brother.” His voice was tight. “He’s gotten himself into this mess, he can get himself out of it.”

“It’s not that easy anymore, Sam. This isn’t just a stolen identity. Your brother is about to be locked up for something that he didn’t even do. He’s… Sam, he’s going to be tried for the death penalty.”

“Then he should have gotten out of the life.” Sam snapped. “You know, I offered him to come with me, to come with me to Stanford, to still be with…” He trailed off, trying to keep that can of worms from be reopened. He had closed that door, suppressed those memories of those nights spent with his brother, the dream of a life that he could have with him if only they weren’t brothers but… no. He wasn’t going to think about it. Not anymore. “But he didn’t want to come with me. He stayed so he brought it upon himself.”

“Oh, you know that’s not fair, Sam! You know, just as well as I do, that he could have never gotten out of this life, even if he wanted too. Something would always pull him back in.” Bobby stopped, his jaw working as if he was considering if he wanted to continue. “I’m not sure if you know this, Sam, but he did try to get out of hunting. Shortly after you left, he showed up on  _ my  _ doorstep, drunk out of him mind and he got out.”

Sam’s eyes widened, partly in disbelief, partly in shock. He wasn’t sure just how much he missed of his brothers life when he just left him that night. They used to be so close and now what were they? Two lovers broken apart by life.

“He tried to live a normal civilian life. He worked at the salvage yard, fixed up cars, helped out around town. I don’t think he picked up a lore book in weeks and yet he was pulled back in because unlike you, he no longer had anyone to keep him out. So don’t give me that crap about how Dean could have walked away because he tried. And now you’re sitting behind this desk with awards lined around your office, looking all high and mighty because you have some sort of college degree that can actually do some good. In a few months, you’ll have a beautiful wife on your arm and maybe in a few years, you’ll have a couple of ruggrats. And your brother, who is only trying to save the world from things that people are too blind to see, is rotting behind bars, counting down the minutes until he dies and you just turn your nose up to him because you’re too good for him.” Bobby never raised his voice once and yet it scared Sam more than it would have if Bobby did scream at him.

“I didn’t… I didn’t know that.” Sam muttered.

“Yeah well, a lot of people didn’t know and you made it damn clear when you walked out on him that you didn’t ever want to see him again. Sam, he’s your brother.”

“What about dad? Has he tried anything?”

“I haven’t… been able to get ahold of him. It’s like he just… disappeared.”

“But I thought that he and Dean…”

“They haven’t spoken to each other in years, Sam. You’re all he’s got. Please, don’t just give up on him like this. Not like your father’s done.”

And that’s all it took. The realization that Dean was truly alone, that the one man that he fucking idolized, he left and now he had gotten himself into a mess that he wasn’t going to get out of and those memories that he tried to forget all started to come back.

But he was engaged and he was happy. Or at least he thought he was. Jess made him happy. It was just… she didn’t… He sighed.

Even though every fiber in his body was screaming at him not to get caught up in the mess that Dean was in, that if he were to help his brother than it would destroy everything that he had spent years trying to build, he nodded his head in agreement to help Bobby.

To help Dean.

“I’ll…I’ll get Dean off of death row.”

There wasn’t much more said between the two men. The agreed that they would meet Dean at the prison the next day and then Bobby left. Sam called in the secretary again, telling her that he needed a cup of coffee and to clear his appointments for tomorrow.

Dean was going to take everything that he had.

Bobby climbed into the front seat of the Impala. Dean had entrusted him with the keys however he said that when he died, he still wanted the car to go to Sam. If only that boy could see how much Dean still cared about him.

He showed up at the prison a few minutes later, checking in at the front desk and the guards pulled Dean from where he was and in a matter of minutes, the two of them were facing each other separated by a pane of thick glass.

Bobby sighed when he saw that Dean was sporting yet again another shiner over his eye.

“You got into another fight, Dean?” Bobby asked. “Can you not go more than a few hours without hitting someone?”

“Well, it’s good to see you too.” Dean replied with that carefree smirk that sometimes made Bobby want to put a fist through his face.

Here he was sitting in a prison, convicted for something that he didn’t do, was going to be tried for the death penalty and would probably get it and he was smiling and joking around like he was just in here for the night, like it was all some kind of joke.

“I talked to your brother today.” There was no need to skate around the reason for the visit.

That smile faltered for a second. “Really? How is Sammy doing?”

Bobby didn’t smile as he spoke. He didn’t speak with that same fond smile that Sam spoke with. “He’s doing great, Dean. He’s opened his own practice, found himself a girl. She’s beautiful by the way. They’re getting married.”

Dean clenched his jaw and that smile really did falter this time. “Wow.” He scoffed. “Law Boy is finally settling down. Really got out of the life. Good for him.” Each word was like a punch to the gut to Dean. So his baby brother had finally moved on, got out of the life to get away from him. “What’d you talk to him about?”

“You… and your case. He agreed to reopen it. He’s going to prove that you’re innocent.”

Bobby watched as Dean’s jaw worked, the smile completely disappearing now as anger boiled beneath the surface. “I told you, Bobby. I don’t want Sam to get involved with me.” He growled. “Sam doesn’t need to get in the middle of it.”

“You honestly think that I’m just going to sit idly by and watch you die for something that you didn’t do, boy? You’re more stupid than I thought you are. I’m going to fight for you, Dean. Your brother is going to fight for you.”

“Okay, then how are you going to pay for it, huh? Sure, he’s not just going to do out of the goodness of his heart. You gonna use some of those fake credit cards? I’m sure that he’ll gladly accept stolen money.”

“Dean!” Bobby hissed. “These calls are recorded. We don’t need to give them more reason to stick the needle in your arm.”

Dean laughed, throwing his arms wide. “What can they do to me, Bobby? I’m already locked up. I have a court case in a few days to decide if and when I’ll be killed. I’ve got nothing to lose so I’ll say whatever the hell I want to say.”

“No, you can’t. Not when your brother is going to be working to save your ass.”

“Bobby, just give it up. You can’t save me. My brother sure as hell can’t pull me off of death row. Just let me live out my last few days in peace, maybe get in a couple of more fights and maybe I’ll write back one of these ‘fans’ that keep sending me letters and invite her to have some spontaneous sex in the corner of a visitors cell.”

Bobby growled at his cocky arrogance. “You are about to die, Dean. After everything that you’ve fought for, everything you’ve survived through, do you really not care?”

“No. Not really.” He said, suddenly serious and it hurt Bobby than he cared to admit to see one of the best men that he’s ever known just laying down and accepting his fate.

Winchester’s don’t give up, they fight.

“Sam’s going to be here tomorrow to talk with you, play out your options. Dean, he’s not going to let you die.” And with that, Bobby got up and left.

Sam was as reluctant as ever to see his big brother, a person whom he hadn’t spoken to in years. He straightened his tie for what seemed like the hundredth time as he waited for the prison guards to bring his brother out. Bobby seemed just as nervous as Sam was.

Sam didn’t even have to look up at Dean’s face to know that it was him. That cocky swagger that he always seemed to walk with had yet to go away. Even in prison. He swallowed thickly.

“Hiya, Sammy.” Dean said in a unusually chipper voice.

“Dean.” Sam replied, sounding every bit formal and like the lawyer that he was supposed to be.

This was just a client. Another client that he was going to prove innocent. It wasn’t his brother. It wasn’t his…”

“So, Bobby managed to convince you to prove to a room full of middle aged women that I didn’t rape and kill one of their own? My previous lawyer already tried and failed. Good luck with that, Sammy.”

“Has he been like this all through the trial?” Sam asked Bobby.

“What? Insensitive and uncaring? Like he would rather be anywhere but here? Yeah.” Bobby replied making a point of looking at Dean.

Sam sighed, taking out a notebook and a pen. “What happened? Why are you in this mess?”

“Well…” Dean leaned back in his chair. “I’m convicted for raping and killing a twenty-seven year old woman. Mother of two. A well known member of the community. Part of the PTA. Always participated in the schools bake sales. Member of the car pool club.”

“Dean…” Sam gave his brother one of his classic bitch faces which also hadn’t changed over the years. “I’m talking about the case. I assume that you were working on one, right?”

Dean crossed his arms across his chest. “I’m sorry, Sammy, I can’t talk about it. You see, Bobby told me not to talk about  _ that stuff _ because these interviews could be recorded and we don’t want to add anything else to my rap sheet that might worsen my sentence.” He paused. “But wait, you can’t make it worse because I’m already going to be killed.

“Dean…” Sam growled. “I don’t have time for this shit. Do you want my help or not?”

“Well, Bobby thinks that you’re competent enough to save me and quite frankly, I wanna watch you try.”

“Could you be anymore of an ass, Dean?”

“I sure can try.”

Sam pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing, seriously considering walking out on his brother. But he had already done that once and it had broken him. He wasn’t sure if he could do it again.

Dean, on the other hand, was surveying the room. There were only a couple of guards keeping an eye on him. The finest that the small town like this could afford. He wasn’t in an interrogation room. Lord knows he’s seen enough of those. He was in a room that he hadn’t been in before. A room, that if you asked him, had awful security for keeping someone like him in.

With a sense of hearing that he had acquired over the years of hunting things that move barely making a sound, he could hear the sound of cars outside meaning that he was close to the front of the building. There weren’t any windows in the room that he was in but there was a road close by. He was sure of it.

Dean couldn’t keep the smile off his lips. There were really making this all too easy for him.

“What were you hunting?” Sam asked again, his voice lower, laced with tired patience.

Dean settled into his chair. “I’m not sure what we were hunting but I think I have a pretty good idea now. I think that it’s a shifter. When I first picked up the case, I thought it was just a human offing another human but I checked it out anyway. I talked to the girl that almost died. She said that it was her husband that had attacked her but the only problem with that was, her husband was caught on camera at a business conference three hours away while the girl was being tortured. Anyway, long story short, something who looked like me raped and killed someone else. And now I’m in here awaiting my death.

“He’s innocent, Sam.” Bobby added. “He didn’t kill girl that woman.”

“Yeah well, not guilty and innocent are two completely different things.” Sam replied.

Dean chuckled. “Can’t disagree with you there.”

Dean stood from his seat, walking to the edge of the room, the guards tensing when they saw him move. Sam followed in suit, walking over to his brother who was now leaning up against the wall, standing within feet of the guard.

“I heard that you found yourself a girl, Sammy. That you’re getting married. Were you ever planning on telling me or…” He sounded hurt however his face didn’t show any emotion. That’s one thing Dean was always good at. Hiding what he was really feeling.

No matter what Sam did, he was still Dean’s baby brother. Someone that he looked out for his whole life and he still care for him. More than Sam would ever know. More than he should and sure, he was upset that Sam walked out on him but he still wanted to know things. He still wanted to know about his brother.

“You know, it’s kinda hard to tell you something when you’re living under a fake name.” Sam countered.

“Aw, come on. You can find a better excuse than that. You could have found me if you wanted to. Use those hacker skills that you somehow acquired. It wouldn’t have been too hard.”

“Dean, you cover your trail a hell of a lot better than you think you do. I did try to look for you. I wanted to tell you that I was getting engaged but I couldn’t… I couldn’t find you. Plus…” His voice dropped. “I didn’t think that you would want to know. Our last conversation wasn’t a great one.”

“Are you kidding me? Of course I wanted to know. I would have showed up. I mean, you had the chance to be normal. Any hunter dreams of that. And you are! Look at you now. All grown up. Some big shot lawyer. I’m proud of ya, Sammy.”

And then everything happened so fast that neither Bobby nor Sam had anytime to realize what Dean was doing. He lunged out at the guard that was only a few feet away from him, grabbing the gun that was on his hip. The guard was taken by surprise and he didn’t have time to react and ended up on the floor, holding his nose that was most likely now broken due to Dean’s hand. Then Dean grabbed his brother, wrapping his arm around Sam’s neck, holding him in a chokehold.

Bobby jumped up from his seat in surprise as Dean pointed the gun towards the other guard.

Now the gun that Dean was holding was pressed up against Sam’s head. “Unlock the door.” He demanded the other guard but he just shook his head. “Open the door and if you don’t, I will shoot everyone in here.”

The guard still didn’t make a move.

“Do you really want to call my bluff?” Dean asked, sounding just as crazy as he was acting.

The guard that Dean had hit had climbed back to his feet and stood next to the other guard.

“Move!” Dean barked. “Now!”

Both guards scurried over to the door, one of them taking out a key and opening it.

“Dean, what the hell are you doing?” Sam asked, his voice sounding choked as Dean pressed harder against Sam’s throat.

Dean bent his head down, his lips hovering over Sam’s ear. Sam could feel the heat of his breath. He could feel the smile on Dean’s lips. That crazy smile on his mouth. “I’m breaking out and you’re my ticket out of here, baby brother.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thoughts, comments and opinions are always welcomed.


End file.
